The Endless River

It’s hard to evaluate an album that comprises, in effect, sessions that have been forced into the semblance of an album. It’s harder to evaluate when one takes into account the fact that these sessions were born a couple of decades ago, then abandoned in favour of what became, The Division Bell.

The Endless River, Pink Floyd, Sony Music, Rs 1,499, Available online and at leading music stores.

There are two other pieces of information to digest before one listens to The Endless River: Firstly, these were largely instrumental sessions. Second, they feature the keyboard performances of the late Richard Wright. What one gets, then, are little more than embellished leftovers released simply (one suspects) as an epitaph for a band that may never release new material again.

If this sounds depressing, fans ought to take comfort in the fact that this certainly feels like a Floyd album from start to finish. If you can ignore the lack of vocals, a lot of material here sounds promising, as if the band is teasing us into imagining what these outtakes could have been, if the members were to ever breathe life into them.

Take the track Ebb and Flow, for instance, or It’s What We Do — both startling examples of just how timeless the Floyd sound can be. There’s a more solid reminder of the ghosts that haunt their repertoire in the form of Louder than Words, written by David Gilmour and his wife, the novelist Polly Samson.

This isn’t a classic Pink Floyd album. As a tribute to a fallen member though, it’s hard to fault.